第14章 The Discontented Pendulum 不满足的钟摆

Jane Taylor ( b. 1783, d. 1824 ) was born in London. Her mother was a writer of some note. In connection with her sister Ann, Jane Taylor wrote several juvenile works of more than ordinary excellence. Among them were "Hymns for Infant Minds" and"Original Poems." Besides these, she wrote "Display, a Tale," "Essays in Rhyme," and"Contributions of QQ." Her writings are graceful, and often contain a useful moral.

An old dock that had stood for fifty years in a farmer's kitchen, without giving its owner any cause of complaint, early one summer's morning, before the family was stirring, suddenly stopped. Upon this, the dial plate (if we may credit the fable) changed countenance with alarm; the hands made a vain effort to continue their course; the wheels remained motionless with surprise; the weights hung speechless;and each member felt disposed to lay the blame on the others. At length the dial instituted a formal inquiry as to the cause of the stagnation, when hands, wheels, weights, with one voice, protested their innocence.

But now a faint tick was heard below from the pendulum, who spoke thus: "I confess myself to be the sole cause of the present stoppage; and I am willing, for the general satisfaction, to assign my reasons. The truth is, that I am tired of ticking."Upon hearing this, the old clock became so enraged that it was upon the very point of striking. "Lazy wire!" exclaimed the dial plate, holding up its bands.

"Very good!" replied the pendulum; "it is vastly easy for you, Mistress Dial, who have always, as everybody knows, set yourself up above me,—it is vastly easy for you, I say, to accuse other people of laziness! you who have had nothing to do all your life but to stare people in the face, and to amuse yourself with watching all that goes on in the kitchen. Think, I beseech you, how you would like to be shut up for life in this dark closet, and to wag backward and forward year after year, as I do."

"As to that," said the dial, "is there not a window in your house on purpose for you to look through?" "For all that," resumed the pendulum, "it is very dark here;and, although there is a window, I dare not stop even for an instant to look out at it. Besides, I am really tired of my way of life; and, if you wish, I'll tell you how I took this disgust at my employment. I happened, this morning, to be calculating how many times I should have to tick in the course of only the next twenty-four hours;perhaps some one of you above there can give me the exact sum."

The minute hand, being quick at figures, presently replied, "Eighty-six thousand four hundred times." "Exactly so," replied the pendulum. "Well, I appeal to you all, if the very thought of this was not enough to fatigue anyone; and when I began to multiply the strokes of one day by those of months and years, really it was no wonder if I felt discouraged at the prospect. So, after a great deal of reasoning and hesitation, thinks I to myself, I'll stop."

The dial could scarcely keep its countenance during this harangue; but, resuming its gravity, thus replied: "Dear Mr. Pendulum, I am really astonished that such a useful, industrious person as yourself should have been seized by this sudden weariness. It is true, you have done a great deal of work in your time; so have we all, and are likely to do; which, although it may fatigue us to think of, the question is, whether it will fatigue us to do. Would you now do me the favor to give about half a dozen strokes to illustrate my argument?"

The pendulum complied, and ticked six times at its usual pace. "Now,"resumed the dial, "may I be allowed to inquire if that exertion is at all fatiguing or disagreeable to you?" "Not in the least," replied the pendulum; "it is not of six strokes that I complain, nor of sixty, but of millions."

"Very good," replied the dial; "but recollect that, although you may think of a million of strokes in an instant, you are required to execute but one; and that, however often you may hereafter have to swing, a moment will always be given you to swing in." "That consideration staggers me, I confess," said the pendulum. "Then I hope," resumed the dial plate, "that we shall all return to our duty immediately; for the maids will be in bed if we stand idling thus."

Upon this, the weights, who had never been accused of light conduct, used all their influence in urging him to proceed; when, as if with one consent, the wheels began to turn, the hands began to move, the pendulum began to swing, and, to its credit, ticked as loud as ever; while a red beam of the rising sun, that streamed through a hole in the kitchen, shining full upon the dial plate, it brightened up as if nothing had been the matter.

When the farmer came down to breakfast that morning, upon looking at the clock, he declared that his watch had gained half an hour in the night.

简·泰勒( 1783～1824）出生于伦敦。她的母亲是个作家。她和妹妹写过许多出众的少儿读物，其中包括《Hymns for Infant Minds》、《Original Poems》，除此之外，她还写过《Display, a Tale》、《押韵的论文》以及《Contributions of QQ》。她的写作手法非常优雅，还囊括有价值的道德品质。

在一个农民家的厨房里，有一个伫立了50年之久的老式钟表，它从没有对主人抱有任何抱怨。在夏季的一天早晨，家人们还没有起床的时候，它突然发起了牢骚。钟摆上的表盘因为闹铃的震颤而改变了自己的表情，它的双手拼尽全力也无法让指针继续移动，轮盘纹丝不动，木球无言地继续悬挂着，钟摆里的每一个成员开始互相责备起来。终于，当钟表的双手、轮盘、木球异口同声地抗议自己的无辜而导致停摆之后，钟摆的表盘开始介入调查。

这时，从钟摆的下面传来了轻微的滴答声，然后那个声音说道：“我坦白，是我导致的停摆，为了满足大家，我会说出真正的原因，其实真相是我厌倦了滴答的声音。”听到这里，钟表勃然大怒，“你这个懒惰的电丝！”钟摆的表盘举起双手惊呼道。

“很好！”钟摆答道，“这对于你来说太简单了，表盘小姐，所有人都知道，人们把你设计在我的上面——去指责别人的懒惰对于你来说实在是太简单了！你这辈子除了怒视别人的脸就没有其它事情可做，拿厨房里发生的事逗自己开心。我恳求你，可否在这个黑房间里闭上你的嘴，然后如同我一样，年复一年的转动指针。”

表盘说道：“这钟摆里就没有一个可以向外看的窗户吗？”钟摆答道：“这里非常黑，尽管有窗户，我还是不敢看它，哪怕只是一秒钟。况且，我已经对自己的生活方式感到厌倦了，如果你想的话，我会告诉你该怎么做。今天早上，我恰巧计算了一下在未来的24小时，我嘀嗒了多少次，或许你们上面的一些人可以告诉我，我究竟嘀嗒了多少次？”

分钟经过快速地计算之后，说道：“一共86400。”“非常准确，”钟摆说道，“如果你们不认为这样会很疲乏，那么我告诉你们，当我开始把一天嘀嗒的次数叠加到月份和年数里的时候，感到很沮丧就不足为奇了。所以，经过一系列的论证和思考过后，我决定不再摆动了。”

在这场高谈阔论中，表盘没法控制自己的表情，它说道：“亲爱的钟表先生，像您这样有用和勤奋的人也会感到疲倦真是让我大跌眼镜。确实，你的工作做的很到位，我们也是一样，去思考‘这样工作会不会让我们感到疲乏’之类的问题，会让我们感到身心疲惫。你现在可否帮我一个忙，敲几下钟，阐述我的论证？”

于是，钟摆用平常的速度敲了六下钟。“现在，”表盘接着说道，“我可否问你一下，这样做有没有让你感到疲惫或者不开心？”“一点也没有，”钟摆答道，“不只是六次，就算是60次、甚至上百万次我不会感到厌倦。”

“非常好，”表盘答道，“但是回想一下，尽管你想要在一瞬间就敲打100万次钟，但是你需要一直缜密的进行敲钟，从今往后，你要一直摆动下去，并且不停地摆动。”“我坦白，正是出于这种考虑，我让自己停滞不前。”钟摆说道。“那么我希望，”表盘继续说道，“我们都应该马上回到自己的工作岗位上，因为如果我们一直这么无聊地争执下去，女仆们就起不了床了。”

这时，木球使尽全力敦促他继续，大家一致同意，于是，轮盘开始转动起来，钟摆的双手也开始移动起来了，钟摆开始摆动了，嘀嗒声也和往日一样响亮；正在这时，从冉冉升起的太阳里发出的光线透过小洞照射进了厨房，表盘变得闪闪发光，整个钟表都被照亮了，就好像什么事情都没有发生过一样。

当农夫下来吃早餐的时候，他看向了钟表，然后说道：“看来，我的手表在晚上走快了半个小时。”